Craft, Words and Waffle by Violet Annie

Tag: recipe

Sometimes you just need cake. Sometimes you just need cake but are well aware that baking an entire cake could prove dangerous. Because you will eat it all yourself and fall into a pit of self-loathing so deep that there would be no ladder long enough to reach you. So that’s where little cheats come in. Cupcake cheats. Lemony delicious soul-soothing cupcake cheats that make very little washing up and can be eaten quickly so there is no evidence of your adulting failures. This recipe is super easy and the taste is yummo-licious. Nice and tangy and citrussy (is that a word?) and very satisfying. PLus it takes about 5 minutes to make and cook. I’ll go back on my diet on Monday (I’ve been ill this week and so everything diet-and-exercise-wise went out the window).

In a 16oz mug, mix together the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and combine until you have a nice smooth batter.

Microwave on high for approx 1 1/2 minutes. Check cake and microwave for another 10-20 seconds if need be. Don’t overcook. Cake should be moist and springy to touch. Let cool for 5 minutes and sprinkle with a little icing sugar if desired. Then eat! Yummo!

Hello hello! I discovered this recipe from All Recipes Australia whilst looking for something yummy to make for a morning tea with my cousin. She is an EXCELLENT cook so I wasn’t going to try anything too fancy that would demonstrate how un-excellent I am in comparison to her. This slice was very simple, tasted delicious (my cousin took the remainder home to share with her family), and didn’t require a lot of mucking about. I am lazy when it comes to cooking – I don’t want lots of complicated steps or procedures, or weird ingredients NO ONE has in their kitchen cupboards. I don’t want to have to do a three hour shopping trip just so I can bake something for dessert.

Anyway, this recipe is super easy and pretty fool-proof (I’m a fool and the recipe worked, so there’s your proof, ha ha). It’s nice and zingy with plenty of lemon flavour.

Now, I understand that broccoli is not necessarily something you think of when someone says “party snacks”, but trust me, these are yummy and a good dish to have if you are serving vegetarians (and don’t want to give them the same boring old hard-boiled eggs or carrot-sticks-with-dip type scenario). Easy to make and easy to eat – what could be better? Serve with a nice, rich tomato sauce for dipping. Yum!

Ingredients

400g broccoli florets (blanched for 1 minute in boiling water and chopped finely)

1 cup grated cheddar cheese (but any cheese that you can grate would be fine)

3 spring onions, finely chopped

3/4 cup bread crumbs

1 egg

1 egg white

salt and pepper to taste

Method

Mix all of the above together in a large bowl until well combined. I actually cheated and bunged the cheese, bread and spring onions all into a food processor so I didn’t have to grate and chop, but either way is fine 🙂 Take spoonfuls of mixture and form into ovals, roughly the size of two walnuts (hope that makes sense – I couldn’t think of anything else to compare them to!). Bake on a tray in the oven at 200 c for approximately 20 minutes, turning over halfway through. They should be nice and golden and holding their shape. You could easily make them larger and flatter, to form a burger, if you wanted to perhaps serve them as a meal for dinner with a salad or other accompaniment.

Give them a try – they’re tasty and almost healthy (if you don’t think about the cheese!). They actually have an almost meaty taste so your non-vego friends will like them too (and if they don’t, too bad – more for me!).

I love cooking shows. You can get some really good ideas from them and, even if the dishes have something in them you don’t like or can’t eat, you can always adapt the flavours. It’s all about inspiration and having a go.

These cookies appeared on Jamie Oliver’s show, Jamie’s Quick and Easy Food, where he makes yummy meals and dishes using only five main ingredients. I hastily scribbled down the recipe, hoping I had got all the measurements right. I am always looking for a good cookie recipe – something that is simple and quick with not too many ingredients or steps. These fit the bill. I love apple crumble so what could be better than a cookie based on those flavours, right? I did add cinnamon because I think that is ESSENTIAL when you are making anything with apple. So this is technically a six ingredient recipe, not five, but hey, I was never very good at maths anyway.

Next time I make these, I am going to try leaving out the egg. I like a really crisp, crunchy cookie, and these were a little softer than I would normally make. Omitting egg from cookie recipes will generally give you a less “cakey” cookie. Don’t quote me on that – I’m not an expert. It’s just my experience.

So, anyway, here is the Apple Crumble Cookie recipe. Try them – they’re simple, no fuss, and delicious. Plus they have my Mum’s seal of approval, which is good enough for me.

During the Easter weekend, I spent time with family which, of course, means the over-consumption of food. Not wanting to contribute to the fat-fest that is Easter (and thus contribute to the size of my thighs) I decided to make some slightly healthier (but also tasty) options for our family gathering. I quickly made a Tuna Loaf , which everyone always enjoys and, if there’s leftovers, can be eaten the next day and freezes well too.

I then thought about making a salad. Now, I eat salad pretty much every single day. Which can get a little bit dull, to be honest. I didn’t want to make the usual lettuce-cucumber-tomato scenario, so I went with this yummy Green Bean and Corn Succotash. My ex Mother-in-Law used to make this for me whenever we got together for a family event. It is fresh and vibrant and so colourful. This isn’t her exact recipe – I haven’t been able to find her original one (which I put somewhere very safe and now, well, you can guess the rest) but it is pretty close and I reckon, with some tweaking, one day I might replicate hers exactly. In the meantime, I will enjoy some delicious trial and error 🙂

I am a bit of a cereal nut. I loves me some cereal, any time of day or night. It is a good standby when the cupboard is otherwise bare and you need something to eat, whether it be for dinner or lunch or, obviously, breakfast. This week I thought I would branch out of my usual Cheerios or porridge routine and get some muesli. I chose a low fat one, thinking it would at least be less likely to adhere directly to my thighs. Alas, it probably contained enough sugar to give half the world diabetes and actually didn’t taste all that good. So, what to do with a box of muesli you don’t actually want to eat? Make cookies out of it, of course. Everything is better if it is cookie-shaped, after all.

So, here is a simple recipe for using up that crummy muesli you don’t like. I gave these to my little nephews and nieces on the weekend and they gobbled them up. To be fair, they are not the fussiest of eaters but, still, they ate these happily – even the little one (who is two and very, very aware of what she does and DOES NOT like).

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix butter, honey and egg together until combined.

Mix dry and wet ingredients together. Set aside for 10 minutes or so.

Roll spoonfuls of mixture together into golfball-sized balls.

Place on baking paper-lined trays and flatten slightly.

Bake for 15-20 mins. If you have used two trays, swap them around midway through cooking so they bake evenly.

Cool for 10 mins then transfer to a wire rack.
If you like, drizzle with a little bit of lemon icing (or leave plain).

That’s pretty much it. They’re not beauty queens, these bikkies, but they taste alright and they’re a good fibre-rich treat to pop in lunch boxes etc. You can almost pretend they’re healthy. Sort of. And at least you haven’t wasted your muesli! 🙂

This is an easy and delicious dish you can make when you want something pasta-ish (cheesy, saucy) but don’t want pasta. I don’t eat pasta at all so this recipe is a great substitute when I’m hanging out for some comfort food that won’t give me a tummy ache afterwards. It’s fairly light, especially if you use low-fat ricotta, and really tasty.

The original recipe called for spinach, but I can’t eat that so I use chopped, cooked kale instead – works exactly the same in this dish.

Couldn’t be easier – just mix all the ingredients together until combined, roll the mixture into walnut-sized balls (this is the messy, fiddly bit), roll them in a little flour to prevent sticking, and then drop them into boiling water. The gnudie will float to the surface when done (approximately 5 minutes or so).

Serve with some tomato sauce and an extra sprinkle of parmesan if you like. I like a little side salad to go with it (but then I have a little side salad with everything. Here, I have used rocket because I am obsessed with the stuff) but you could pair it with anything you fancy.